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134      SARAH JOSEPHA HALE.

A sweet, heart-lifting cheerfulness,
Like spring-time of the year,
Seem'd ever on her steps to wait,—
No wonder she was dear.


THE MISSISSIPPI.

MONARCH of Rivers in the wide domain
Where Freedom writes her signature in stars,
And bids her Eagle bear the blazing scroll
To usher in the reign of peace and love,
Thou mighty Mississippi! — may my song
Swell with thy power, and though an humble rill,
Roll, like thy current, through the sea of Time,
Bearing thy name, as tribute from my soul
Of fervent gratitude and holy praise,
To Him who pour'd thy multitude of waves.

Shadow'd beneath those awful piles of stone,
Where Liberty has found a Pisgah height,
O'erlooking all the land she loves to bless,
The jagged rocks and icy towers her guard,
Whose splinter'd summits seize the warring clouds,
And roll them, broken, like a host o'erthrown,
Adown the Mountain's side, scattering their wealth
Of powder'd pearl and liquid diamond drops,—
THERE is thy Source, — great River of the West!

Slowly, like youthful Titan gathering strength
To war with heaven and win himself a name,
The stream moves onward through the dark ravines,
Rending the roots of over-arching trees,
To form its narrow channel, where the star,
That fain would bathe its beauty in the wave,
Like lover's glance steals, trembling, through the leaves


SARAH JOSEPHA HALE.     135

That veil the waters with a vestal's care;—
And few of human form have ventured there,
Save the swart savage in his bark canoe.

But now it deepens, struggles, rushes on;
Like goaded war-horse, bounding o'er the foe,
It clears the rocks it may not spurn aside,
Leaping, as Curtius leap'd adown the gulf,
And rising, like Antæus from the fall,
Its course majestic through the Land pursues,
And the broad River o'er the Valley reigns!

It reigns alone. The tributary streams
Are humble vassals, yielding to its sway.
And when the wild Missouri fain would join
A rival in the race — as Jacob seized
On his red brother's birth-right, even so
The swelling Mississippi grasps that wave,
And, rebaptizing, makes the waters one.

It reigns alone — and Earth the sceptre feels:—
Her ancient trees are bow'd beneath the wave,
Or, rent like reeds before the whirlwind's swoop,
Toss on the bosom of the madden'd flood,
A floating forest, till the waters, calm'd,
Like slumbering anaconda gorged with prey,
Open a haven to the moving mass,
Or form an island in the dark abyss.

It reigns alone. Old Nile would ne'er bedew
The Lands it blesses with its fertile tide.
Even sacred Ganges, joined with Egypt's flood,
Would shrink beside this wonder of the West!
Ay, gather Europe's royal Rivers all—
The snow-swell'd Neva, with an Empire's weight
On her broad breast, she yet may overwhelm;
Dark Danube, hurrying, as by foe pursued,

Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-28 13:46:23 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-28 12:43:24 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-28 16:26:37 ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-06-28 14:51:29